Peacetime
by jazzpha
Summary: AU. These are the short stories that take place after my AtLA story "Twist of Fate", so you should read that before any of these. No character pairing is set because the focus of each one-shot or short will be different, and the genre as well. Enjoy!
1. Siblings

**Peacetime**

**Chapter 1: **Siblings**  
**

* * *

"Well, this is unexpected," Azula mused as she eyed the thin wisps of steam trailing off the top of her tea cup. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, brother?"

Zuko chuckled, but the trace of melancholy in it didn't pass his sister by unmarked.

"You make it sound like it's not normal for us to spend time together," the prince replied, picking up a piece of pan-fried pork with his chopsticks and taking a bite out of it. Azula shrugged.

"It never used to be," the princess said at last, doing what she thought was a far better job than her brother at hiding her lingering pang of regret behind a veil of practiced indifference. "And nowadays, every scrap of free time you have gets spent with Katara."

Zuko sighed, toying with the half-eaten piece of pork for a moment before pushing it out of reach.

"I wanted," he spoke up after a moment, "to apologize to you."

Azula couldn't stop her eyebrow from arching at that, nor could she keep the surprise out of her voice as she replied to the unexpected answer.

"Apologize? For what?"

Zuko's face creased with lines of intense concentration, and his sister could tell that he was working up the courage to say something that had been weighing him down for quite a while. It was a few heartbeats more before the dam finally broke open, and when it did Zuko sounded guiltier than Azula had heard him be in a long time.

"For hating you," he said. "For being jealous of you, because you had father's eye all the time. Because you were always the better Firebender, and it was so obvious. I should have seen what you were going through, and been there for you… but I couldn't get over myself enough to see what you were hiding. I was a terrible brother, and I'm sorry."

Zuko's eyes were screwed shut by the time he finished, his hands clenched in fists down at his sides. Azula sat in silence for a few moments, both to give her brother time and to let his words fully sink in. It was a more overt apology than her mother had ever given her—than anyone had ever given her. She'd known that the other members of her family had always held her at arm's length, except maybe her cousin, but this was the first time Azula had heard any of them take responsibility for it.

She would have smiled, but she didn't want to ruin the moment. Reaching over instead, the princess took one of her brother's hands gently in her own and uncurled its tense fist.

"Zuko," Azula said with quiet insistence, "look at me."

The prince's eyes opened slowly, and even in the muted light of the room it wasn't hard to see the glimmer of unshed tears.

"You're not a terrible brother," she assured him. "I did as much to push you away as you did to stay away from me. If it's any consolation, you weren't missing out on much by having Ozai ignore you. I envy you for that, actually."

Her brother blinked away his tears, squeezing her hand lightly in a gesture of unspoken thanks. When he looked at her again, there was nothing but concern in his eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Zuko asked. "About… that."

Azula pulled her hand back and shrugged again, taking a sip of her tea to calm the tremble out of her voice. Thinking about Ozai always made her think about the nightmares that his pompous, grinning face would show up in, laughing at her.

At times, she wondered if they'd ever stop... even though Hanzo had promised her over and over again that no nightmare lingered forever.

"I'll be fine," she told him, before promptly switching the subject. "Lu Ten and I were talking," the princess continued, "back when we were in the Earth Kingdom. He made it sound like you'd fought in an Agni Kai— did you?"

"I did," Zuko answered, after he'd finished off the rest of his piece of pork and chased it with some tea. When he said nothing else, however, his sister couldn't keep her curiosity at bay.

"And?" she pressed him. "What was it fought over? It must have been something serious, to make you go that far." Azula thought for a moment, and then smiled as her amber eyes lit up with satisfaction when she'd thought she'd solved the riddle. "Someone insulted our mother, didn't they?"

Zuko shook his head. A small, embarrassed smile accompanied the gesture.

"Not exactly," he said. "But close. Someone insulted you."

The revelation took Azula aback again, and for a few heartbeats she was completely at a loss for what to say.

"Me?" she echoed, surprised. "You fought an Agni Kai over _my_ reputation?"

Her brother nodded, his smile widening at the memory.

"It was on one of the missions I ran with Lu Ten and some other soldiers, in the Earth Kingdom," Zuko explained. "One of the troops called you an 'Overbearing, know-it-all, domineering little bitch', and I told him that an insult to one person in our family was an insult to all of us. I challenged him to an Agni Kai, and wound up breaking both of his legs and three of his ribs.

"Lu Ten told me I got a little carried away," the prince finished with a short laugh, "but I think he would've liked to have done it himself."

Azula was quiet at that, giving the confession some time to breathe.

"But what I don't understand is, why?" she asked at last. "Why did you do it?"

Zuko had a little more to drink while he thought of his answer, but in the end nothing seemed more fitting to him than just saying the brutal truth.

"Because it was a way I could do something nice for you without actually looking you in the eye, I guess," the prince said at last. "I was still a bit of a coward, back then."

Azula smiled, reaching her hand back out and ruffling her brother's unbound, slightly-shaggy hair.

"You're definitely not a terrible brother, Zuzu," she replied, putting the teasing lilt on his nickname that she knew would always get to him. "I'll miss you, when I'm out east," the princess finished, letting her hand drop. Zuko caught it halfway between them, giving it another affectionate squeeze.

"I'll miss you, too, Azula," he said, before letting her hand go and returning to his lunch.

His sister did the same, and the silence that settled between them was the most content any of their shared silences had ever been.

* * *

**…**

**…**

**A/N: **So there it is, the first of the post- 'Twist of Fate' short stories! My apologies for this taking so long to post, but life has been insane for me lately, and will continue to be so throughout the rest of the summer. I might be able to squeeze in a little writing time in July and August, but I can't make any promises.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this one! I've grown quite attached to my versions of these characters, and writing them again makes me sad all over again that they're dead in 'Korra'. Especially Azula. Feel free to let me know what you thought of this chapter while I go cry in a corner.

See you next chapter for a Zutara one-shot!**  
**

**- Jazz  
**


	2. Dawn

**Peacetime**

**Chapter 2:** Dawn

* * *

Zuko came to realize, in the days and weeks after his cousin's wedding, that there were few things he enjoyed in life more than being around Katara. Sure, Toph ribbed him endlessly whenever he would hang around the periphery of their Earthbending training sessions, but it was worth the heckling. He loved watching her stubborn, unyielding pursuit of perfection in everything she did, and seeing her face light up in the triumph of accomplishment made him feel like he could do anything.

Except, of course, the one thing he was currently devoting all of his allotted training hours to working on: the creation of lightning.

Lu Ten had assured Zuko that he'd succeed at making lightning eventually, but had also told his cousin not to get frustrated if it took a while. The Fire Lord had only gotten a firm grasp of lightning when he was eighteen, and Azula's early mastery of it was in no way typical. Of course it wasn't: nothing Azula _ever_ did concerning Firebending was typical.

Sighing and trying to keep his head clear of thoughts that might disrupt the flow of his _chi_, Zuko shifted his stance into the posture his cousin had showed him. Apparently, master lightning users could call it into existence without the need for a complex set of motions to channel the energy… but the prince knew he was far from mastery. Once he could actually create and unleash the lightning itself, then he would worry about getting fancy. The best he'd managed so far was a simple spark, but at least it hadn't blown up in his face.

He'd assumed Lu Ten had been exaggerating about that at the time, but the look in his cousin's eyes as Zuko laughed had been completely serious.

"Still working at it, I see," the Fire Lord's voice broke into the prince's thoughts. Zuko turned back over his shoulder, regarding his cousin with a tired smile and an equally strained shrug. The prince spared a moment to glance over at the heated spar between Toph and Katara that was doing surprisingly little damage to their surroundings; their control was admirable indeed.

"It's not going that smoothly," Zuko admitted at last, walking over to a nearby bench and sitting down as Lu Ten joined him. "I wish Azula were here; she might have a tip or two."

"And what does that make me, then?" the Fire Lord asked with a smile, putting a trace of mock-affront in his voice. "I can control lightning just as well as your sister, thank you very much."

"I know," Zuko said with a smile, before sighing lightly. "I just… I _miss_ her. It's like she was a totally different person when I came back here, and those few days before she left for the Earth Kingdom were... well, they were nice."

Lu Ten nodded.

"That they were," he agreed, wishing that he'd had less politics to deal with and more time to spend with his family, before Azula had gone off with Hanzo at her side to crush what remained of the Earth Kingdom rebels.

But they'd have plenty of time to spend together after Azula's safe return, and for now the Fire Lord knew that he had to help his other cousin out. Otherwise, Katara would be mad at him for letting her fiancé get gloomy... and the last thing Lu Ten wanted to deal with right now was the Avatar holding a grudge against him for something.

"So," the Fire Lord began, "how far along have you gotten with it?"

Zuko shrugged, letting his eyes roam over to the spar between Toph and Katara again in order to take his mind off of his frustration.

"A few sparks," the prince answered a few moments later. "Nothing solid. I can feel it forming, but then it just slips away."

"But it hasn't blown up in your face, though. That's a good sign."

Zuko turned his head to smirk at his cousin, his amber eyes bright with restrained laughter.

"Did that really happen to you?"

Lu Ten nodded, smiling at the memory.

"Your mother thought it was one of the funniest things she'd ever seen," he answered, chuckling. "I don't remember her ever laughing that hard, before or since. She looked like a pomegranate."

Zuko's smirk shifted into a genuine smile at the image of his mother in such high spirits, but it soon turned melancholic as he wondered if she would ever be that happy again. Living with his father for all those years seemed to have taken a toll on her, and she'd taken Iroh's death particularly hard.

Lu Ten's thoughts seemed to have wandered down a similar path, because a few heartbeats later he abruptly cleared his throat and shifted the topic of conversation back to its root.

"The trick with lightning," he said, pulling his cousin back into the present as well, "is that you have to second-guess yourself."

When no further explanation came, the prince arched an impatient eyebrow.

"What's that even supposed to mean?" Zuko asked, and the Fire Lord shrugged.

"See if you can figure it out," he replied. "I'm not going to hold your hand all the way through this, Zuko. You're smart enough to get there on your own."

The prince sat and mulled over his cousin's words, letting his eyes drift back to the sparring session Toph was still having with his fiancée. Katara was taking to Earthbending with amazing speed, but it was clear from watching the two of them fighting that she still had a while to go before she was on the same level as her teacher. Toph seemed to have a knack for reading Katara's next move before it was even made, and Katara couldn't seem to let go of her Waterbending instincts. It was as if she kept expecting the earth to flow, rather than accepting that she had to push it herself…

Oh.

"I'm losing the lightning because I'm still trying to treat it like fire," Zuko said, feeling the understanding dawn on him as his cousin's cryptic hint finally made itself obvious. "I need to second-guess my instincts in order to control it."

Lu Ten gave the prince a grin before rising to his feet, reaching down and putting a hand on Zuko's shoulder.

"Told you so," he said. "Here's one more thing, though, since you got past the hard part. Don't think of it as being controlling, or you'll push too hard against the _chi's_ natural flow: that was Azula's biggest stumbling block. Like my father told me, all you're doing is guiding the energy and releasing it. Fire, we can command easily enough. Lightning is a whole different beast, Zuko."

The prince nodded, and the Fire Lord took that as his cue to leave. As he walked back toward the palace, Lu Ten saw his regent approaching him and nodded.

"Lady Ursa," he said warmly. "I hope your day hasn't been unbearable?"

"No more than usual, my Lord," Ursa replied with a low curtsy. The Fire Lord grimaced.

"How many times am I going to have to tell you not to stand on formalities with me?" he asked. "Every time you do that, I keep worrying you're going to fall on your face."

"Years of practice," the regent said with a knowing smile, and Lu Ten shrugged.

"Regardless," he replied, "one of these days, I'm going to write a formal decree banning you from doing that."

"A decree that I would have to sign off on, you mean?"

The Fire Lord stopped for a moment, considering the question as his face shifted into a joking frown.

"You're way too good at your job."

Ursa laughed.

"That's why you gave it to me, my Lord."

The pair parted ways, the Fire Lord going to see what his Lady was up to as his regent walked out into the courtyard and saw her eldest child sitting alone on a bench.

"You look worried," Ursa said as she sat down next to her son, and Zuko sighed.

"There's a reason for that," he said. "Azula's last letter was fine, but they've been getting worse. She says the rebels are acting like cornered pit-vipers."

"You're not the only one who's concerned," the regent told the prince with a nod, her own voice heavy. "But she'll be fine— you know your sister wouldn't have made the choice she did if she wasn't certain she would succeed."

Zuko gave a bittersweet chuckle.

"When is Azula _not_ certain she'll succeed?"

Ursa felt a pang of guilt in her stomach as she pulled Zuko into a one-armed embrace; as much as it worried her to see her son so torn up, a part of her was also happy that he'd come to care about his sister. Their relationship had been so strained over the years... but now, their family was knitting itself, slowly but surely, back together.

And that fact alone was worth all of the hardship and heartache that had preceded it. Ursa knew in her bones that Iroh would have felt the same way, and there wasn't a day that passed when she didn't thank him for everything he had given her.

"Mother? Are you all right?"

She blinked twice at the sound of Zuko's voice and pulled herself back into the present, nodding absently.

"I'm fine," she said. Ursa's eyes passed over Katara as the Avatar finally reached the end of her training session, and a sly smile crept across her face. "Have you and Katara thought at all about when you might want to have an official ceremony?"

Zuko caught sight of Katara's betrothal necklace as it glimmered in the sun, and he smiled.

"We're going to wait, at least until Azula gets back from the Earth Kingdom," he answered, and Ursa felt her heart lighten at the change in mood. "And we also want to give Katara's parents enough time to come up here for the ceremony."

"Of course," his mother replied, giving an approving smile and nod. "It will be good to see Kya again."

"And I'm sure she feels the same way," Zuko said. "It sounded like you two were close friends, back then."

"We were indeed," Ursa answered with a wistful smile as she watched Katara approach with a tired grin, the regent rising to her feet to clear the space next to Zuko. "And we still are, despite your father's best attempts to ruin it. The friendships that ought to be treasured are the ones that can endure even the bitterest of storms, Zuko. Remember that."

Her son nodded, and Ursa felt a swell of maternal pride at how mature he looked. His eyes held nothing but compassion and loyalty; Ozai's legacy had truly died with him.

"Am I gonna have to get a restraining order put on you, Zuko?"

Toph's wisecrack pulled an exasperated sigh out of her student, and Ursa took that as her cue to depart. As she left the courtyard and went back into the palace, the regent heard the blind Earthbender say 'Just because I can't see you, that doesn't mean I don't know what you're doing…'. Ursa laughed again, remembering the times when she and Kya had wondered if their children would ever get along.

No question she'd ever known had a clearer answer than that one.

* * *

"_Much_ better," Zuko heard Katara sigh in relief behind him as she stepped back into the room they shared. "I actually feel like a person again. Honestly, I don't know how Toph can stand being covered in so much dirt all the time."

"That's just her thing," the prince said easily as he turned around in his chair, just in time to give his fiancée a quick kiss as she leaned over and tried to see what he was reading. Katara let it linger for a few heartbeats before she broke away, frowning.

"Your _chi's_ all jumbled up again," she said, giving Zuko that scowl of hers that he'd always found more precious than intimidating. "Sometimes I think the only reason you're doing all of this 'lightning practice' is so I have to straighten you out afterwards."

"That's not even close to true, Katara."

"No?" the Avatar asked, raising one elegant eyebrow. "Is there some other reason you just happen to not be wearing a shirt, then?"

Zuko had no answer for that, and Katara let out a small sigh before bending water over her hands and pressing them lightly against Zuko's back. The prince sighed in contentment as he felt a light pulse of healing energy spread through him, gently untangling the snarls that seemed to gather habitually around the two scars on his back.

"If you hadn't been checking for it, you wouldn't even have been able to tell my _chi_ was messed up," Zuko said at last, still somehow managing to sound smug even as the healing energy sapped away his concentration. "You like this just as much as I do."

His fiancée mumbled something about that being a filthy lie… but the prince could feel the intensity of the healing energy rise as Katara's heart rate subtly spiked, and he smiled.

"Thank you," he said sincerely after a few more moments, once Katara had withdrawn the water and the healing session had ended. "For doing this, I mean."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said, wrapping her arms around Zuko's chest and leaning forward far enough to plant a kiss on his cheek. "You don't have to thank me for that."

"No, I don't _have_ to," Zuko agreed as he leaned back into the embrace with a smile, making sure to keep his chair grounded, "but I want to."

"So," Katara said, looking over Zuko's shoulder at the scroll resting on his desk, "what's that?"

"It's a letter from my sister," the prince explained. "She managed to get her troops in line, but she actually sounds... worried about how this last push might go. Not that she'd ever admit she was worried," Zuko added, "but I can tell."

"What do you want to do about it, then?" the Avatar asked, prompting her fiancé to look back over his shoulder at her.

"What?"

"I mean, do you want to go to the Earth Kingdom and back her up, Zuko," Katara clarified, her eyes serious. "If you honestly think Azula needs help, you should give it to her. I'm sure the Fire Lord would understand you leaving your post for a little bit."

"And you wouldn't mind me leaving you here?" the prince said, drawing an arched eyebrow from Katara.

"What're you even talking about?" she asked. "I'd go with you. You need someone to watch your back for you, after all."

Zuko smiled.

"Yeah," he agreed. Then he paused, his face scrunching slightly in concentration. "Do you think Toph would want to visit her parents? They probably miss her."

"I think she would," the Avatar answered. "And we definitely couldn't go wrong with a little more help, either." Now it was Katara's turn to smile. "Especially Toph's kind of help."

Zuko nodded, and his smile grew.

"And once we get Azula and Hanzo back here—" he said,

"— we can get married," Katara finished the thought happily.

"And then June will stop asking me about it every chance she gets," the prince added, sounding relieved.

"I'm so glad that's the first thing that comes to your mind," Katara said dryly, giving the prince a playful smack on the shoulder. "You do realize that after we get married, she's just going to start hounding us about having kids."

Zuko stood up, turning as he did so and pulling Katara into a full embrace.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he whispered, the tone of his voice sending a shiver lancing up her spine. No matter how many times he used that tone with her, it always seemed to have the same effect.

But two could play that game.

Zuko had to bite back a groan as he felt Katara nip at a pressure point on his neck, one particularly weak spot of his that she'd discovered by accident during a furtive, rushed moment in between training sessions. The prince tried to recover his balance, but it was too late. Katara moved with him over toward their bed, picking him up off of his feet and dropping him onto the soft mattress. Before Zuko could even try and figure out how she'd gotten so strong all of a sudden, she was on top of him and making his thoughts go all hazy.

She was getting better and better at that, and Zuko wasn't complaining at all.

As much as Katara enjoyed letting her fiancé lead from time to time, few things were more fun than doing the leading herself. There was one sound he made when she kissed the hollow of his collarbone that Katara knew she would never get tired of hearing, for example.

And she was in the middle of enjoying that very sound— her hands busying themselves undoing the bindings of the clothes she'd just changed into— when a knock came on the door and completely shattered the moment.

"Avatar Katara?" the messenger's voice called through the barrier. "The Fire Lady has requested your presence; she is suffering another bout of sickness. She did say that if she was… interrupting anything, however, that you should… 'finish up' before paying her a visit."

Katara rolled off of Zuko with a sharp sigh, catching her breath as quickly as she could.

"Tell her I'll be right there," she answered, which was followed by the quick pattering of feet as the messenger made their exit. Zuko, meanwhile, stopped taking ragged breaths just long enough to groan.

"She is _definitely_ interrupting something," he complained, earning him another light smack on the shoulder from Katara.

"I'm not going to let a pregnant woman writhe in misery," she said flatly. "We can always continue this later."

Zuko thought about objecting, before that thought was obliterated by the image of an angry June chasing him through the halls brandishing a dagger and cracking a whip. As much as he knew June had been serious about letting him and Katara have some time alone, he also knew the Fire Lady's temper could be subject to sudden changes these days.

It was not a risk he felt like taking; not now, and not ever.

"Sounds good to me," he said, relishing the feeling as Katara gave him one more lingering kiss before straightening her clothes and leaving the room. Zuko let himself relax into the comfortable bed with a sigh, and his world faded to black.

* * *

June took one look at Katara and frowned, her gray eyes keen despite the pale color that spread across the rest of her face.

"I thought I told you to wrap it up if I was interrupting," the Fire Lady said pointedly as her friend called water onto her hands and made it glow. "You won't be able to help me if you're thinking about Zuko the whole time."

"I appreciate the faith," the Avatar replied with a sarcastic smirk, before closing her eyes and focusing all of her attention on settling June's stomach. "How are you feeling in general?"

"Like I'm going to murder my husband."

"How are you feeling _physically_?" Katara clarified, and June gave a drawn smile.

"Like I'm going to murder my husband."

Laughter broke out from the right of the pair, and the women turned to see the husband in question walking towards them, a grin on his face.

"At least you gave me fair warning," Lu Ten said, "just like the last time you tried to kill me. If that's not true love, Katara," the Fire Lord finished, turning to the Avatar, "I don't know what is." He gave his wife an affectionate peck on the forehead before stepping back and giving Katara room to work, but one of his hands remained on June's shoulder.

"How's your training with Toph going?" the Fire Lady asked the Avatar, trying to take her mind off of the slight increase in discomfort that always came right before things settled back down. Katara shrugged.

"All right, I guess," she answered, finishing the healing and taking a step back. "She's still way ahead of me, but I feel like I'm getting better."

June sighed in relief, glad that she didn't feel like she was about to vomit anymore.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, kid," she said. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Katara said, smiling, before her blue eyes clouded over slightly in what the Fire Lady instantly recognized as impatience. "You need anything else, or…?"

"I'm fine," June said with a knowing smirk. "As you were, Katara."

The Avatar managed to beat back her blush, but couldn't resist calling back over her shoulder as she speed-walked out of the room.

"Let me know if anything changes," she said, silently cursing the instincts that years of healing lessons in the South had ground into her.

"It won't," June called back with a laugh, and Katara smiled as she closed the door behind her.

The walk back to her room was a quick one, and Katara didn't even pause at the sight of Zuko sprawled out on the bed and snoring. Climbing onto the bed with practiced ease, she immediately picked up where they'd so abruptly left off earlier.

It only took the prince a moment to wake up from his catnap, and one moment more to realize just _how_ he'd been woken up. He let his fiancée think she had him in her thrall for just long enough to drop her guard, before putting a hand on either side of her waist and rolling over.

Katara's competitive side cursed silently as she looked up and saw those smug amber eyes gazing down at her— but then Zuko leaned down and whispered in her ear, that shiver-inducing tone in his voice again.

"My turn."

* * *

**...**

**...**

**A/N:** So yeah, we got some heartwarming family interaction time on one hand, and some shameless sexual tension on the other. Sounds like a good balance to me!

I just love writing all of these characters together when no big plots are going on and no one's trying to murder any of them... it's just so much nicer that way. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it!

The next story is going to focus on Azula and Hanzo's adventures out East in the Earth Kingdom, dealing with rebels, overcoming discontent in the army, finding a lost sword and the settling of a very, very old grudge. Should be fun!


End file.
